Читать книгу Origin of the 'Reorganized' Church and the Question of Succession - Joseph Fielding Smith - Страница 6

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I do not intend to convey the idea that there was not a falling away, an apostasy, at the time of the martyrdom and the exodus from Nauvoo, for there were many who forsook the cause, but compared with the Church membership, they were but few. Who were they? Did the faithful Saints forsake the Church at that time? Did those who risked their lives—who were shot with the Prophet and Patriarch forsake the Church? No! We do not find the faithful Latter-day Saints, who had the Gospel rooted in their hearts turning away. Then who were those who forsook the cause? I will tell you.

In the parable of the sower the Savior said:

"Behold a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed some seed fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth; and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth; and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away."

In explaining this parable He said:

"But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended."

These were they who forsook the Church in the exodus from Nauvoo. Not the faithful who had been tried and proved and not found wanting, who had an abiding testimony of the truth. Now, let us see what Gen. Thomas L. Kane has to say on this subject. He visited Nauvoo about this time and also the camps of Israel. In the postscript to the second edition of his lecture on "The Mormons" he says, page 86:

"The Mormons as I saw them, though a majority, were but a portion of the Church as it flourished in Illinois. When the persecution triumphed there, and no alternative remained for the steadfast in the faith but the flight out of Egypt into the wilderness, as it was termed, all their fair weather friends forsook them." * * * * *

"So the Mormons have been as it were, broken and screened by calamity. Their designing leaders have left them to seek after fortunes elsewhere. Those that remain of the old stock are the masses, always honest in the main and sincere even in delusion; and their guides are a few tried and trusty men, little initiated in the plotting of synagogues, and more noted for services rendered than bounties received. They are the men whom I saw on the prairie trail, sharing sorrow with the sorrowful, and poverty with the poor; the chief of them all, a man of rare natural endowment, to whose masterly guidance they are mainly indebted for their present prosperity, driving his own ox team and carrying his sick child in his arms."

We have the statement of Sidney Rigdon, one of those who forsook the cause. It is found in his Messenger and Advocate for June, 1846, pages 474-5, and a portion of his statement I will now read:

"Their camp [that is the camp of the exiles, the pioneers] is in the western part of Iowa, some 200 miles west of Nauvoo. Their situation according to our informant, is as miserable as it well could be. Their stock of provisions they took with them, is getting fast reduced, so much so, that they can proceed no further; neither can they go back. They are there without shelter, other than tents and wagons, and their tents so indifferent that they will not shed the rain, which has been incessantly falling since their arrival. In this awful condition is to be found the aged and infirm, the mother and tender infant. When our informant left, they were going to fence in some 300 or 400 acres of land, for the purpose of raising a crop of corn to try and preserve life. The remains of their furniture, which in part consists of beds and bedding, they are sending off to Missouri to exchange for corn and bacon to sustain life. * * * * This said Young professed to be a follower of Christ, and hold communion with Him, and to receive revelations from Him; but where are his pretensions now? He has got, according to our informant, some 800 or 1,000 people far into the wilds, without food, without shelter, and himself being judge, without object. * * * A state of wretchedness beyond this is not easily conceived of. Our informant says when he left, which was some three weeks since [and I may add that it is quite evident from this account why he left] the mud, by reason of the incessant rains, was six inches deep round their camp."

I suppose that there are some present this afternoon who realize the hardships through which the pioneers had to pass that tried men's souls and that only the faithful were able to endure.

I have now shown that the great majority of the Latter-day Saints followed President Brigham Young and were true to the Church. We get a good idea of the number who scattered from the testimony of William W. Blair.